Saturday, October 03, 2009

Boy Culture on a new book of letters that's a must have for Grey Gardens fansNetflix is streaming The Wizard of Oz for free (today only)Art Net Kirsten Dunst goes Harajuku for artist Takashi Murakami. I saw his last show in Brooklyn featuring anime characters with shape-shifting ejaculate and whatnot. Very crazy / racy / grotesque stuff. I ♥ Kiki... anxious for a new film right about nowIn Contention Guy asks the question we all must ask every year if we really care about the movies and not just Oscar. What are precursors for anyway? I'm happy to have Guy by my side in the good fight

She Wired This is a complicated first but Ming-Na (The Joy Luck Club) is now playing the first lesbian Asian-American series regular with her new role on Star Gate Universe. My first reaction is Star Gate is still on? My second is more appropriate: 'congratulates Mulan'! Yeah, I was looking for another link to pad this post. Sue meMovie | Line interviews Lee Daniels and talks Precious. I love this bit on Mo'Nique

the comic dredges up a sneering, mind-blowing flair for movie monsterdom. For all the film’s tonal shifts and turbulence, the raw dread of her turbaned, chain-smoking fury up every stairwell and around every corner supersedes anything distributor Lionsgate will package for its latest Saw installment.

Goatdog looks back at Carmen Jones (1954) and doesn't like what he sees, outside of the mesmerizing Dorothy Dandridge of courseGuardian UKTerminator franchise for sale. Low low (high) priceMy New Plaid Pants fanboy delusion: bullfighting with Javier Bardem

5 comments:

Totally unrelated, but just out of curiosity, what does your "BCD" rating next to Antichrist mean? I saw it last night at the NYFF. My evaluation thus far is that it's a lingering, affecting, visceral, and courageously acted/directed movie... that I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy.

I just read that China passed on “City of Life and Death” (it came in 2nd place at TIFF with the most positive reviews by critics out of the festival), and have, instead, submitted “Forever Enthralled” for Foreign Language consideration. In a seemingly endless, exhausting output of uninspired biopics, China has stepped up with it’s own mildly adequate paean to a famous person (in this case, a 1920’s opera singer, played by Zhang Ziyi). Honestly, I was hoping that Todd Haynes brilliant and iconoclastic, “I’m Not There” was going to be the final nail in the coffin of this made-by-rote genre. No such luck! Which leads me to respond to Joe Morgenstern's assertion in The Wallstreet Journal in which he lauds Anne Fontaine’s “restrained” direction in “Coco Avant Chanel”. Restrained, Joe? How about nonexistant. Fontaine has never been a good director, and she doesn’t disappoint here. In regards to biopics, I am not suggesting that they stop being made (because there are some very good ones: “I’m Not There”, “Capote”, “Quills”), but if they are going to be produced I would like them to say/express something other than being a Cole’s Note on someone’s life.

Anyway, here is that critics poll I mentioned above detailing the best reviewed films at the festival:

TIFF 2009 Survey Results

BEST NARRATIVE FILM1. A Serious Man, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (63 points)2. City of Life and Death, directed by Chuan Lu (20)3. Up In The Air, directed by Jason Reitman (18)3. A Prophet, directed by Jacques Audiard (18)5. Dogtooth, directed by Giorgos Lanthimos (17)6. Precious, directed by Lee Daniels (16)7. I Am Love, directed by Luca Guadagnino (11)7. Hadewijch, directed by Bruno Dumont (11)7. A Single Man, directed by Tom Ford (11)7. Lebanon, directed by Samuel Maoz (11)

It would be nice to see some of these get mentioned a little bit more (they need our help) instead of the usual suspects. I, for one, am holding out hope that “A Prophet” will cross over from the Foreign Language category to Best Picture (from my mouth to God’s, Santa’s, and the Easter Bunny’s ears).